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Ivo Andric (1892-1975) fikk som første jugoslav Nobelprisen i litteratur. Den foreliggende bok, Ex Ponto, som var det verket han først slo gjennom med i sitt hjemland, har en helt annen karakter enn romanene som gjorde ham verdenskjent. Andric skrev dette verket da han satt fengslet og internert i tre år for å ha deltatt i jugoslavenes kamp for frigjøring fra Østerrike-Ungarn. Ex Ponto er et slags dikt i prosa. Andric gir her korte, avsluttede samtaler med sin sjel, med dype tanker om menneskelivet, om filosofiske og etiske spørsmål og om sin egen skjebne.

Ex Ponto (I):
Have you ever had everything taken from you - and what can't be taken from a man?
When I die, feel free to write down that I squinted at the last moment.

Life is such that a person often has to be ashamed of what is most beautiful in him and to hide it from the world, even from those who are closest to him. (Ivo Andrić)

You will be ashamed as long as you live. You will always have opportunities for that. The world will give you enough of it, but even when it doesn't, you will try to find it yourself.

You will stumble but not fall; and if it happens - an exceptional case - that you fall, you will not hurt yourself, but as soon as you get up, you will continue your journey calmly and cheerfully. You are different from everything around you, everything threatens you, everything endangers you, but nothing bad can happen to you irreparably, because from the beginning there lives in you a hidden and indestructible spark of life's joy that is more powerful than everything that surrounds you.

You will only suffer for the whole century, until the last day, because of the unnatural position in the world into which you have been thrown.

So it can be said that through all the twists and turns of a long life, you are assured of two things: long suffering and sure victory.

It is a hope, a vague and hopeless hope, which torments us more than it comforts and strengthens us, and which never leaves us.